Dixon takes home A.J. Foyt Trophy

He didn't win a race on an oval in 2011, but Scott Dixon secured the A.J. Foyt Oval Trophy with a third-place finish in the Kentucky Indy 300.

Dixon accumulated the most points via top-five finishes in all seven oval races (the season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Oct.16 is not included), and outdistanced Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dario Franchitti by 10 points. Franchitti, the inaugural award winner in 2010, won at Texas and Milwaukee but had non-top 10s at Indianapolis and New Hampshire.

"It's a big honor to win the A.J. Foyt oval award," said Dixon, who will be presented a $50,000 check at the INDYCAR Championship Celebration on Oct. 17 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. "The guy's a legend and a character as I'm sure everybody knows."

Foyt, a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner and owner of the IZOD IndyCar Series team that bears his name, is the all-time leader in victories with 67 (all under USAC sanction). Foyt, whose Indy car career started on a dirt track in Springfield, Ill., in August 1957, earned his first win came at DuQuoin, Ill., on Sept. 5, 1960.